Thousands of woman raced on the streets of Beirut in a competition entitled ‘‘You are really strong’’, just a few hours after two rockets hit a Beirut suburb - a reminder of the volatile political situation in the country.

ABAAD-Resource Center for Gender Equality and the Swedish Institute hosted the Regional conference “Masculinity and ending Violence Against Women in the Middle East and Abroad” in Beirut, Lebanon on the 10th and 11th of April, 2013.

(WNN) Beirut, LEBANON: A new Lebanon based human rights and equality initiative is now partnering with men to reach the goal as advocates for equality of the sexes in the Middle East region and beyond. To do this ABAAD – Resource Center for Gender Equality in Beirut has partnered with the IMC – International Medical Corps to bring a new and innovative approach to advocacy – by bringing men into the mix with programs, including TV commercials, aimed to help men deal with anger management as part of their commitment to improving violence in society.To find out more, WNN – Women News Network reporter Elahe Amani interviewed ABAAD director Ghida Anani, along with Anthony Keedi, Director of ABAAD’s new ‘Men Center’ which is located in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut.

“I want to make one thing clear: we women in Lebanon are NOT victims. Our tenacity and resilience, which we have gained through our own process of self-empowerment, allow us to continue waging a battle against patriarchy, which exists across the world and in many different religious contexts.”

Proposed amendments to a draft law on gender violence in Lebanon have sparked demands from civil society organizations that parliament uphold an original draft criminalizing “honor crimes”, marital rape and other abuses.

“The version that we came up with at first was fine,” said Maya al-Ammar, an activist with the organization KAFA, [Enough Violence and Exploitation]. “Now it is not good at all.”

When the topic of “taboos” surfaces in our region, what immediately comes to mind are all issues related to sexu- ality. Then the question becomes, “whose responsibility is it to address such taboos?” My answer: all of us, yours and mine together.